Home
by DarkWriter711
Summary: A few weeks after Sora and Riku are home, Sora discovers that there's more to being home than actually making it back to familiar land. One-shot


I never imagined that I would feel so strange laying on this familiar stretch of beach. The sand felt the same, the air had the same warmth and the sky was the same perfect shade of blue. I had imagined this place a thousand times in my dreams and in those seconds before a battle, imagining that I was here instead of anywhere else, and now that I had finally made it back, I couldn't have felt more out of place.

"Sora?"

I sat up in my place and looked around. Riku was ambling towards me, his hands in the pockets of his jeans and his hair loose around his shoulders. He too, was different. Older, wiser, stronger, more experienced… Riku had been through things I couldn't even fathom.

"Hey," I said, laying back down in the sand and shutting my eyes. I heard Riku sit down somewhere close to me. I could hear him breathing.

"It's weird, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

We'd had this conversation several times over the past few weeks since we had returned. It was strange being back after all the different places we had seen. It was boring, dull and wondrous all at the same time.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to it."

I didn't say anything. I didn't think that I could ever get used to it either. Every time I thought about going back to school or spending an evening watching television or going to the movies, I felt sick to my stomach. How could I ever go back to being normal Sora?

I looked over at Riku. It was comforting knowing he was having the same problems and the same doubts, though I wished he'd never been involved. He would carry scars on the inside and out for the rest of his life now.

"Was it scary?" I asked, sounding immature as I always did, "Being in the organization and being trapped in that other body?"

He considered his answer for a moment. "It was," he finally answered, nodding and looking out over the sea before him, "But it wasn't too bad when I thought about you and Kairi. I knew I was doing it for the two of you."

Kairi. There was the elephant in the room. I sat up, telling myself that it was time we address it and talk about what happened next.

"Do you have feelings for her?" I asked. My voice sounded a bit higher than I would have liked, and I blushed a little bit.

Riku looked down, wrapping his arms casually around his knees and clasping his hands. He did everything with a grace that I could never pull off, and it was the smallest actions that made me feel jealous and petty. How could someone as wonderful as Kairi pick me over him? She was a princess after all. Wouldn't she want someone a bit more mature and composed? I was a mess.

"She's Kairi," he said, "She's been like my little sister for so long. I won't lie – there was a time that I really, really did have feelings for her. Strong ones. But she seemed so much younger than me then, and now… well, it's clear that she chose you."

I looked away from him. I didn't think that it was that clear. The way she had stopped and forced him to reveal his identity to me… somehow, I'd thought it was more about her wanting him to stay with us than anything else. And the way she had sobbed into his shoulder after we'd all calmed down the evening after we'd returned to Destiny Islands… she went to him for comfort. Not me.

"I don't think it's that simple."

"I do."

I looked away again, back out to the ocean. I didn't know what to say or do or think when it came to Kairi these days. One moment I would think she was looking at me with more than friendship in her eyes, and the next I'd be able to find nothing more than sisterly affection there. Why did women have to be so complicated?

"Maybe you should talk to her," Riku said. He stood up, shaking the sand off of his jeans and his t-shirt before holding his hand out to help me up. "I think it's time that you do. She waited for you. Don't make her wait any longer."

I sat there for a moment, looking at his outstretched hand. It made me feel like a door to another world did – like making one more movement could change everything. It was an exciting prospect and a terrifying one at the same time. Taking it and getting to my feet would be the same as agreeing with him and admitting that I needed to go see Kairi – that I needed her.

"Come on, Sora. It's Kairi."

I took his hand.

It was evening by the time I found Kairi. She was walking back to the home she shared with her adoptive parents with a shopping bag in one hand and a single pink rose in the other. I watched her walk before calling her name from the side street I was approaching on. She raised the flower to her face to smell it, brushing it against her lips in the process. Simply watching her do this sent tingles down my spine.

"Kairi!" I called to her, quickening my step to catch up with her. I felt a million times lighter than I was used to without potions, keychains or other odd items on my body. My shorts and t-shirt felt weightless, and everything felt easier and faster, walking included. I was at her side in what seemed like seconds.

"Hi, Sora!" she said. There it was. That look that made me feel like more than her friend. I smiled at her, but it was forced. She shifted the bag in her arms and hugged me, holding my shoulders for a beat longer than seemed normal. I took the bag from her arms in a moment of chivalry and started walking back towards her house with her.

"How was your day?" I asked. She lifted her shoulders in a shrug before stretching as she walked. When she did things like that, it was hard not to look at her and admire how she'd grown. She was just wearing a simple sundress, but she looked beautiful. More beautiful than I could have ever imagined her being before we'd left. Maybe she just seemed so amazing because I'd missed her so much.

"Last day of school. That's always good. Now I have the whole summer to spend with you and Riku."

I smiled at her. She seemed so innocent talking about things like school and carrying her bag of groceries. She smiled back at me and took another sniff of her rose.

"Where'd you get the flower?"

"Tidus. He got Amaris a dozen and he was handing out another dozen to the other girls."

"He always was a flirt."

She giggled. "Absolutely."

We walked in almost awkward silence all the way back to her parents house. Kairi hummed a bit for a moment, and I tried to talk to her about what she wanted to do over the summer, but I got nowhere. It wasn't until we reached her front porch that I realized we'd only been having conversations like this since we had come home.

"What's wrong, Kairi?" I asked her, setting the bag down on the front step. I had to know. Why weren't we laughing as easily together any more? Why didn't she tackle me to the ground and try to tickle me the way she used to? And why was I so nervous around her? She was, after all, just Kairi.

"Nothing's wrong."

She was lying and she knew it. I folded my arms across my chest and looked down at her. When did that happen? When did she learn to look away from me like that?

"I don't know, Sora. I can't talk about it here. I've got to go have dinner with my family. Meet me at the island at nine?"

I had been sitting on the dock for an hour now. I had gone home just long enough to tell my parents that I was going to be gone for a while that evening – it had taken them a long time to believe the truth of where I had been, and it had taken more proof than I'd wanted to give them. Riku and I had been forced to summon our keyblades in front of them before they'd understood that they simply couldn't understand.

Kairi's family, however, had not been so understanding of her brief disappearance. She was being watched very carefully – too carefully. I wondered if her parents knew more than they were letting on. Perhaps they had been the princess's assigned guardians all along?

I watched Kairi drift across the glassy water towards me. It looked like she was rowing across a sea of stars since the water reflected the sky so perfectly. It seemed to take her forever to reach the dock, and still I wanted to watch her, rowing herself towards me, looking so peaceful and content. The mixed feelings made me feel even more confused and frustrated than I already was.

When she did reach the dock, I tied the boat off before helping her out. Her hand felt soft and warm in mine as I helped her onto the platform and I didn't want to let go of it. She stumbled a bit, her dark red hair falling into her face, and I couldn't help but laugh at her as I helped her get her balance back.

"Always so graceful."

"Oh, shut up," she said, " I don't even know how you walk with those massive feet of yours."

"Hey!"

She smiled at me and silence fell on us again. I didn't know why she'd wanted to come all the way out here just to talk or why she was being so quiet and looking so frightened right now. In truth, I didn't understand much about the moment, aside from the fact that it was important.

"I'm sorry, Sora," she said. I frowned as she sat down on the edge of the dock, looking out over the endless water in front of us. I stood behind her for a long moment before taking my place beside her – not too close, but not too far away.

"What are you sorry for?"

"I don't know. Everything you've been through. Not being able to help you. Being part of the problem –"

"You were never –"

"I was one of the princesses, Sora. I didn't make things easier on you."

She had a point, but she couldn't help it that she was one of the princesses of heart. She had never been in my way or held me back…

"I felt better knowing you were safe."

"I could have gone with you and helped you find Riku."

I didn't say anything for a long time. I just stared out over the water, trying to figure out what to say. I didn't want to dwell on these past two years, nor did I want to be held back by them. The experience was amazing, and I had full intentions of returning to the Radiant Garden when the opportunity presented its self. When that time came, I hoped Kairi would join me. It was, after all, her kingdom. Still, I was here now, and I wanted to make the best of it, which included coming clean to Kairi.

"I thought about you," I started, adamantly looking out over the sea rather than at her, "All the time. It was like you were there. Every fight, every journey to another world, every new task… every time I thought I was going to die, I would think of you and remember all the reasons why I had to make it back here. I had to make this place safe and come back here."

"I thought you were searching for Riku."

I shook my head. "It wasn't just that. The whole thing was so complicated, and it was so dark sometimes, Kairi. Nothing was ever comfortable or right while we were travelling. I just kept telling myself that someday I would make it back here to you and everything would be worth it."

"Sora…"

I didn't feel the tear running down my cheek until she reached over to wipe it away. Before I knew what I was doing, I turned my face into her hand, taking in its warmth. "Don't cry."

"I'm just so glad I'm home."

"I'm glad you are too."

Her voice shook. I never underestimated how harsh this ordeal had been on her, what with all our disappearances, the loss of her memory, the confusion of the World that Never Was… but maybe I hadn't realized just how attached she was to me. Maybe I hadn't seen how much of her anguish was tied to me.

"I'm okay."

She nodded a bit and pulled her hand away. I instantly wanted it back where it had been. "I know you are. That's what makes this so strange. I spent all this time thinking about how things would be when you came back and now I just don't know what to do with myself."

"What do you mean?"

"You're different. You've been places and seen things. You saved the world. You fought alongside figures out of our story books. You can't tell me that hasn't changed you."

"It hasn't," I said firmly, but I knew it wasn't true. "I'm still Sora."

She smiled at me a little. "I know you are."

"I just… I missed you so much and you changed so much while I was away. You grew up."

"You did too. I mean, seriously, have you taken a good look at your arms lately?"

I laughed, leaning forward and looking down into the water and at my feet dangling above it. "I hadn't noticed."

"Liar."

"Okay, so maybe a little. But I bet I still couldn't take on Riku."

"Bet you could. And you could beat Tidus and Wakka together."

"Yeah, that I could do."

She smiled at me and reached over to take my hand. It was something she had done a million times before, but somehow this time seemed different. It seemed loaded with a thousand different things that neither of us could say. I held hers tight in my own. After wearing gloves so constantly for so long, my hands felt ultrasensitive, and for the first time, I was grateful. I could feel her pulse in her fingertips.

"What are we?"

Her question threw me, and I must have jumped a bit because she tried to pull away from me. I held her hand tighter and turned to her. The way she was looking at me with those big almost-violet eyes made me want to melt into her palm. After everything, she still had the same effect on me.

I wanted her to say it, to declare us a couple so I could be sure I wasn't just being crazy and imagining that look in her eyes. I wanted her to be the one to say _yes, I want to be with you_, but it occurred to me that maybe she was thinking the same thing, and we could be in this stale mate forever if one of us didn't make a move.

I raised her hand to my lips and kissed the back of it. It was time someone started treating her like the princess she was. "We're us," I said, "If that's what you want to be."

She smiled. I could see relief in her, and that made me so happy. "Of course it is."

As though it was the most natural thing in the world, she slid into my arms. She rested her legs across my lap and lay her head on my shoulder, and for the first time, I got to just hold her. Nothing more. Nothing less. I needed nothing more, and judging by her contented sigh, neither did she.

"You're warm," she said quietly. I wrapped my arms around her a little tighter.

"Good," I said, "Then you'll never be cold."

She pulled away just enough so I could see her smile, and I couldn't help but to smile too. I rested my arms around her waist, finding myself perfectly comfortable like this with her. I had learned so much about magic and the fantastic things that can happen in the world, so I wondered if some force could just freeze us here in this moment forever.

"Never?"

"Never."

I wanted to kiss her, but I'd already had to make one major change with her today. I was afraid that making another move would be too forward, or maybe my nerves would simply die from being overstressed. So it seemed like she was reading my mind when she leaned in and rested her hand on the back of my neck.

Our lips were only centimeters apart. I could feel her breath on my face – she smelled like orchids and French fries. I could see every eyelash, every freckle, and every streak of color in her irises. There were so many things I hadn't been close enough to notice before and so many things that I wanted to memorize.

I sealed the gap between us, and all the things that I had been thinking about – the thoughts and ideas that had been swirling around in the back of my mind – were dispersed, though to where, I did not know. My mind became blissfully clear and the only thing in any of the worlds that mattered was Kairi.

I finally felt like I was home.

A/N: I tried to keep everyone in character and realistic. I hope you enjoyed it. Please take a few seconds to review if you're logged in! Kthnxbai!


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